1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to promotional coupons and methods and more particularly to promotional coupons which have such a physical construction and configuration and which are so usable as to pique the interest of recipients of coupons and to otherwise invoke participation by the recipients to promote sales of products or services. The coupons and methods are also such as to provide issuers with a ready source of valuable information which would otherwise be difficult to obtain.
2. Background of the Prior Art
In marketing consumer products it is common to offer cents-off coupons by mail or through Sunday supplements. These coupons generally offer a specified amount off a particular consumer product on purchase and presentation of the coupon at a supermarket check out counter. In other promotions the consumer is offered a rebate through purchasing product being promoted with the rebate realized on returning a coupon to the manufacturer and receiving the rebate through the mail at a later date.
Other kinds of promotional schemes are revealed in the prior art including the Seidman U.S. Pat. No. 3,455,575 directed to a promotional card for providing bank account gifts in which the donor presents the gift recipient with a card which reveals the amount of the gift as the recipient erases an obscuring material on the card. The purpose of the Seidman card is to facilitate the gift and to interest the recipient, generally a child, in a savings account. The Seidman promotional card also includes a detachable tab so that the issuing bank can verify the value of the card.
Also of interest is Leonetti, et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,627,643 directed to a contest card in which the value of the card is obscured by a coating and in which the card provides an abrasive material for removing the coating to expose the value of the card.
Another promotional coupon is revealed in the prior Krautsack U.S. Pat. No. 4,307,900 in which a consumer is provided with a promotional coupon having place for receiving one or more proof of purchase seals which were applied to the coupon and returned to the manufacturer for the premium offer.
Coupons have also been proposed for issuance by two competing manufacturers who would cooperate in a challenge match between competing products. It was proposed that illustrations of the two competing products be provided on opposite sides of a central portion of the coupon and that a choice of one of the products be made, and/or a redemption value be obtained on a next purchase thereof, by tearing away a section of the coupon containing both the illustration and the central portion of the coupon, dashed tear lines of different colors being provided on the coupon.
Although a number of the coupons as proposed in the prior art have enjoyed substantial success, many have had little or no success, apparently because the coupons have not attracted sufficient interest or because they have required procedures which are too complicated or are otherwise unattractive to recipients of the coupons or to issuers of the coupons.